Time and Space by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030475536
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

3 New Data: Descriptive Analysis

The study of long-term regional patterns in Colombia requires a discussion of economic dynamics that goes back to the first half of the twentieth century, a period rarely discussed by the literature on regional convergence. The reason is that data on the economic performance for this period is scarce. In this chapter we present a quantitative approach using several historical data sources to study regional economic inequalities throughout the century. The institution in charge of producing the official statistics in Colombia is the Administrative Office for National Statistics (DANE). Regional GDP is currently available from 1980 to 2018. The base year of the official estimations has changed three times during that period, which means that the annual series is divided into four different segments. The segments cover the periods 1980–1995, 1990–2005, 2000–2016 and 2005–2018. These four series are available in both current and constant prices on the official webpage of DANE.1

DANE has no estimates of regional GDP for the years before 1980. For this reason, some institutions have published independent estimates of regional GDP. Most estimations have the same regional configuration and are estimated at constant prices, but cover different periods. Three of these are of particular interest. The first is the series of regional GDP produced by the former Center for Agricultural Studies (CEGA). It consists of an annual estimate between 1975 and 2000 (CEGA 2004). The second is a series produced by the Pontificia Javeriana University (PUJ), which covers the period between 1970 and 1990 (PUJ 1992). The third is an estimation by the National Planning Office (DNP) for the year 1950 and the period between 1960 and 1975 (DNP 1977).

Another indicator of regional economic activity is bank deposits. Bank deposits have been used in Colombia as a proxy for GDP to study regional convergence (Bonet and Meisel 2001) and are available for 15 regions between 1926 and 1960. Their source is the Revista del Banco de la República, a journal edited by the Central Bank of Colombia. It contains information on short-term and savings deposits in current prices. These were initially reported by the Superintendencia Bancaria, the institution that regulated private banking in the country. Bank deposits in current prices for the period between 1926 and 1960 were converted to constant prices using the consumer price index estimated by Meisel (1990).

Before 1950 there are no official or independent estimates of regional GDP that include all regions of Colombia. Hence, to study regional disparities in economic activity for the first half of the century it is necessary to estimate regional GDP with an indirect approach that uses other available sources of information. We will use the average of bank deposits observed during two time periods, 1926–1928 and 1937–1939, as a proxy for regional GDP. Averages over three years are selected to smooth temporal annual changes in bank deposits. The reason for selecting those specific years are the following: the first period consists of the first three years of bank deposits, which means that these

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